WEB SITE REGULATIONS


Content Standards

Subject Matter - All subject matter on school district web pages and their links must relate to curriculum and instruction, school-authorized activities, or information about the district or its mission. Staff or student work may be published only as it relates to a class project, course, or other school-related activity. Students, staff or other individuals may not use the district's web pages to provide access to material that is personally developed on other servers or online services. Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis.

Pre-Approval – New sections of the web site must be pre-approved (viewed) by the web developer or an administrator before being activated on the web server.

Quality - All work must be free of any spelling or grammatical errors. Documents must not contain objectionable material or point directly to objectionable material. Objectionable material is determined on a case-by-case basis by the building administrators.

Student Safeguards
· Documents shall include only first name of the student.

· Documents shall not include a student’s home telephone number or address or the full names of other family members or friends.

· Published E-mail addresses shall be restricted to those of staff members.

· Pictures of student and students’ work shall not be published without permission from the student and parent or guardian.

· Student work will be copied and sent home before it is uploaded to the server.

Technical Standards


Each student’s web page must have an authorized school district sponsor.
Each web page added to the district web site must contain common elements:

· At the upper left hand side of the page, there must be a link to the district home page entitled “Jay S.D. Home”

· At the bottom of the page, there must be the date of the last update of the page and the name or initials of the person(s) responsible for the page or the update.

· HTML formatting must be simple, excluding as few clients as possible. Design should be intended to function with the oldest browser versions and smallest screens practical. Fixed widths beyond 680 pixels is discouraged. Web authors must be familiar with and employ features compliant with the Americans for Disabilities Act, wherever practical. Use of frames, PDF only files, image maps or other features perceived to be A.D.A. non-compliant, is discouraged. File names should be all lower case.

· Graphic elements, especially animated images, should be used sparingly. Each graphic image should improve the site’s usability.

· File sizes should be kept small to minimize load times. As a rule, basic pages of information and links should be kept to 120 K total. Web authors’ work must show awareness of the impact of file size on performance.

· All images must include size and alt tags.



The web designer who is responsible for the final web page will edit, test the document for accurate links, and ensure that the page meets the content standards listed above. In addition, the web designer will assume responsibility for keeping the material current.

Pages may not contain links to other pages that are not yet completed. If further pages are anticipated but not yet developed, the text that will provide the link may be included but may not be made active until the further page is actually in place.

The web site administrator/s will maintain directory structure. Staff members must participate in an approval process to be granted access.

Design Process:

The JAY School Department web site is a large and growing resource, with primary developers for a number of different sections, including:
¨ Superintendent’s Office
¨ Curriculum
¨ Jay High School
¨ Jay Middle School
¨ Jay Elementary School

Developers for each section form a team, led by the web site administrator. Each section may contain contributions from many individuals. The sections are linked not only with the district's main page, but with each other at many levels. They also may connect to databases, distribute files and programs, and serve as access points to a wide variety of additional resources. The priority should always be to help the users of the site get what they want as easily and as quickly as possible. This requires close coordination, timely feedback from users, and above all, simplicity in design.

Each developer has a role in design:
¨ provide leadership, direction for staff members who contribute within his/her area of the web site.
¨ participate in district web team meetings.
¨ assist the district team in determining required design and navigation elements.
¨ create the school/department’s main page.



Revision of Regulations


These regulations will be evaluated and updated as needed in response to the changing nature of technology and its applications in the School District. Questions regarding this information may be directed to building and district administration.

Web Page Development Responsibilities

The District needs to educate all students as they prepare for a productive life in a changing world as directed by the Maine Learning Results. The use of the Internet and associated technology is playing an increasing role in student education.

Adherence to these guidelines will insure proper use of the District's network capabilities and proper conduct of the user. The construction and ongoing maintenance of a web site that represents the District is to be viewed as a public information vehicle subject to the following guidelines, which require efficient, ethical and legal utilization of network resources.

School Administrator


1. The school principal should have personal knowledge of any web site at his/her school. No web site should exist at the school without the explicit permission of the administrators. The administrators are ultimately responsible to see that standards for the web site are met.
2. The building administrators/supervisors will check content of all web sites on a regular basis.

Web Site host computer (server)


1. Physical security of the web site host computer (server) is important: it should be in a lockable room away from normal student access.
2. The host computer (server) will be maintained online 24 hours a day.
3. Access passwords should be kept secure and should be known by only a few key people-the teacher in charge of the web site, the principal, technology coordinator and web coordinator.

Role of technical staff:

A technical staff person should be designated to maintain the web server and software. He or She is responsible for ensuring server function and back-ups, for necessary upgrades, enhancements, and changes, and for security. Technical staff members provide assistance to web developers, but should not be expected to perform web development (design and publishing of web site content.)

When available, a web site administrator provides oversight to ensure that each section is developed in accordance with district policy and that all portions work together to serve those who use the site. Final authority on web site content remains with building and district administration.

Sponsoring Teacher or Administrator

Defined: Any teacher or administrator willing to be responsible for proofing student material prior to submission to the Web Coordinator for publication on the school’s web site.

Responsibilities:

1. Instruct students on proper use and guidelines before development begins.
2. Insure that student work has educational value.
3. Screen student material to insure that it adheres to the district goals, guidelines and policies. (Refer to guidelines below.)

Student or District Employee

Student any student currently enrolled in the District.

District Employee any person currently employed by the District.

Any student wishing to publish a web page must first have a district employee willing to sponsor their material before it is submitted to the Web Coordinator. Any district employee is responsible for meeting district guidelines before submission to the Web Coordinator.

Web Page Publishing Guidelines

· Each school web page shall contain a link to the following disclaimer statement:

"We have made every reasonable attempt to insure that our web pages are educationally sound and do not contain links to questionable material or that which could be deemed in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy."

· Material to be published must not display, access, or link to sites deemed offensive by the District's Acceptable Use Policy. All published material must have educational value and/or support the District's guidelines, goals and policies.

· The only material to be published on the District web server must come from district employees or students sponsored by a district employee.


· The web is a dynamic resource. Links to pre-existing sites must be checked regularly to insure that they are not to inappropriate sites.

· Student work should not be published on a web site unless both the student and parent(s) or guardian(s) have signed the signature page. (see Form #1) An exception would be if the work were part of an existing publication such as a newspaper or school newsletter.

· At no time should a student's personal e-mail address or phone number appear on a school or district web page. All e-mail should be directed to the school or Web Coordinator.

· Please pay particular attention to the copyright information found below.

· The principal should regularly "visit" his or her school’s web site to check for appropriateness and the legal issues, which may arise when a school or district department engages in global publishing.

· Material should be produced or assembled on school computers under teacher supervision. If parent or community volunteers are supervising site production, a staff designee of the principal should review the site periodically with the volunteer and should administer standards for the site.

· All materials should pass through an editorial stage of production. Editors should examine material and make corrections for the following:
· Spelling
· Grammar
· Content (see Internet Acceptable Use Policy)

· No commercial advertising of any type should be displayed on Jay School Department web pages.

Copyright Issues


The Internet has grown to a worldwide computer network with many different types of users with many different purposes for their presence. Copyright issues are often brushed aside or completely ignored. As an educational institution we should be aware of the necessity of conforming to all laws, regardless of how they may be perceived on the Internet. The guidelines stated herein are for our own protection and for teaching by example those principles we wish to instill within our students.

The copyright law and the courts have provided exceptions to the rules that govern the behavior of teachers, students, and schools. In general terms, teachers, students and schools are allowed to make "fair use" of materials for instructional purposes. “Fair use” has been interpreted to include those limited uses, which are not likely to deprive a publisher or an author from income. “Fair use" of Internet resources by teachers, students, schools or district personnel should parallel the use of printed resources. Teachers and students might make limited use of some text and graphics within their own classrooms. They should not “publish” those same materials across other classrooms within the building by posting on a local area network (LAN) or across other classrooms in other buildings on a wide area network (WAN) or World Wide Web.

Teachers and students might make rather liberal use of information, text and graphics so long as their resulting works remain within the classroom setting. The moment the works move out of the classroom, they may fall under a "public performance" clause of the copyright law, which imposes much greater restrictions and fees.

If purchased clip art collections are used, read carefully the language outlining web rights. Most contain some form of agreement printed on a seal, which is broken upon opening. Most of these agreements require the user to print a credit line on any document, which you are publishing, which include one or more graphics from the collection. The best advice is to read and follow the stipulations within the agreement.

Teachers, students nor district personnel may safely make use of others materials (graphics, text, etc.) when they publish on the Web unless they have requested and received formal permission to do so. This would include downloading or "whacking' another web site's material down to their school server. This should only be done after obtaining written permission from the author of the desired site.

To avoid problems with what to use or not use, the following statement should be our guide. ­Unless there is a clear statement that art, photos and text are "public domain" and available for, free use one should assume they are copyrighted. This material should not be used for republication on a local area network, a wide area network, or a Web site unless permission is granted from the owner.

Privacy Issues

In addition to copyright issues, careful thought and attention must be given to privacy issues. These include the following:

· Student information may not be published if parents have requested that it be withheld.

· Photographs of students or district employees shall be used only with permission from the Parents or district employee.

· Students' last names shall not be used on web sites.





Only the web sites/pages created under the auspices of this administrative regulation will be hosted by Jay School Department.



Appendix A
WEB PUBLISHING RULES: COPYRIGHT

Copyright law and district policy do not allow the re-publishing of text or graphics found on the Web on district Web sites of file servers without explicit written permission.

· For each re-publishing (on the Web site or file server) of a graphic or a text file, which was produced externally, there must be a notice at the bottom of the page crediting the original producer and noting how and when permission was granted. In many cases, that notice should also include the URL (Web address) of the original source.

· Students and staff engaged in producing Web pages must provide the Web Coordinator with e-mail or hard copy permissions to be filed before the Web pages are actually published. In the case of “public domain” documents, printed evidence must be provided to document the status of the materials.

· The failure of a site to display a copyright notice may not be interpreted as permission to copy materials. Only the copyright owner may provide the permission. If the materials have been improperly and illegally displayed by a Web site, the manager of that Web site may not be considered a source of permission.

· The “fair use” rules governing student reports in classrooms are less stringent and permit use of limited graphics and text.

· Student work may only be published if there is written permission from both parent and student.

Staff members and students with questions regarding these guidelines are advised to check with the Web Coordinator before proceeding with the collection of images and text.